Shades of Blue
by Mishaa
Summary: Series of ficlets revolving around Aomine and/or Kuroko. [#1] - They wanted to be able to look back to one happy memory. [#2] - In his throne, high up in the canopy of the world, he found that he was alone, because without him noticing, his shadow had broken from him and disappeared without a word.
1. Azure

**Published**: October 19, 2012 (post _33885035529_ on carabarks at Tumblr)

**Rating: **K+/T  
**Genre: **Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, maybe a little angst?  
**Tagline:** _They wanted to be able to look back and have one perfect memory._

**Disclaimer**: Inspired by a photo. It was meant to be PWP fluff version. I think I barfed out the cliche. This has not been proof-read.

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**_Azure_**** -**_ a color that is commonly compared to the color of the sky on a bright, clear day._

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o1.

Kuroko really doesn't like Valentines day. The rabid female population of Teikou (and other schools, some not even in this district too!, Kise likes to add) keep thinking up more and more inventive and frankly, creepy ways to corner them after their afternoon practice. Well, to corner Aomine and Kise specifically.

(On this day, Kuroko can sympathize with Midorima, having to deal with Kise and his girls on a daily basis. To be honest, Kuroko's fortunate enough to have to deal with this only a couple times a year.)

But for some reason, Aomine takes Kuroko's hand anyway as he breaks into a run as soon as Akashi unlocks the gym door when practice ended.

Aomine leads him around a few corners before they lose track of the last girl, but to be safe, they duck into a few corridors and into an empty classroom he locks as soon as they enter.

They slump down on one of the walls, breathing heavily. They lock eyes and break the silence with mirthful laughter. "Haha! You should see your face, Tetsu!" Aomine guffaws, clutching his belly and trying not to look at Kuroko's state of disarray.

"And who's fault do you think that is, Aomine-kun?" Kuroko wipes a tear from his eye and lets a small chuckle escape, being a little more reserved than his best friend.

"Besides, you should see yourself too." He wrinkles his nose and jokingly points out, "You could pass off having recently showered, if you didn't stink so much, that is."

"Hey!" Aomine exclaims, indignant. He puts his shoulder over Kuroko, pulling the him closer. Kuroko stiffens and Aomine starts ruffling his hair and giving him a noogie.

Aomine reaches into the bag he managed to grab before the invasion of females. His hands shuffle through his uniform a while before they come upon a cold object. He pulls it out and offers it to Kuroko. "Popsicle?"

Kuroko stares at it for a while before shaking his head. Aomine roles his eyes and ruffles Kuroko's hair some more. "You're way too picky with your food. I don't get how you can prefer vanilla milkshake over chocolate, but chocolate popsicles over vanilla. What's the difference?"

He gives Aomine a patronizing look. "There's a difference."

"Suit yourself," Aomine scoffs before ripping open the plastic and starts licking at the tip. Kuroko looks away.

"Man, those girls are pretty crazy, huh?" Aomine mumbles, the popsicle still in his mouth. "I hear one of them broke into Kise's locker," he scowls, "We should've stuffed his locker with pictures of 'Tarou early this morning. Tch. Prank wasted."

He starts playing with the tips of Kuroko's hair and Kuroko wishes, prays, and begs for Aomine to get some tact; or at the very least, learn to be a little dense. And he better do it soon or someone's going to die. Either Kuroko's beating heart will explode from his chest, or he's going to blow up and murder Aomine to stop it.

"Tetsu?" he says, bending over and to look Kuroko straight in the eye.

Kuroko flushes, and on instinct, pushes Aomine's face away, surprising him enough that he drops his treat.

"Ow! Hey!" exclaims Aomine, looking fornlorn at the wasted popsicle.

He grabs the hand Kuroko used, pulling him closer so their foreheads meet. Kuroko's held in place by the arm Aomine still hand around him. "What was that for?" Kuroko does not look him in the eye.

"Hmm?" he tilts his head, confused at Kuroko's lack of response and Kuroko resists hitting him for being such an idiot.

Maybe it was the stupid look Aomine had on his face, or maybe it was his hormones skyrocketing, but Kuroko found himself closing the gap between them, their mouths pressing against each other.

And maybe the fact that he was kissing his _best friend_ didn't really register in his brain (hard to be thinking _anything _at all really, with _Tetsu_ doing what he's doing), but Aomine reacts on instinct (and maybe with a little bit of experience from playing this scenario over and over in his head a million and one times before) and prods Kuroko's lips open with his tounge, equally with as much hunger, or maybe even more.

(He's not quite sure if this is really happening, or if it's just his fantasies going wild, but he doesn't really care, not when he's caught in a fierce battle of tongues with _Tetsu._)

"Chocolate's not _that _bad, I guess," Kuroko supposes, breaking away before Aomine gets carried away with the hand he slipped under his shirt when he was too high on the _bump bump bump _of his heart to notice.

Aomine does not stop, however, and starts to trail kisses down the length of Kuroko's neck, taking particular pleasure in the juncture of the neck and shoulder.

Kuroko bites the inside of his cheeks to keep from encouraging Aomine even further. "A-Aomine-kun, please stop."

Aomine pulls away and stares into Kuroko's eyes, looking like a penniless child in a candy store. "Why?"

A thousand reasons came to mind; _you're my best friend; we're guys; you're probably just caught up in the moment; I'm going to regret this because while this means the world to me, you probably think nothing of it. _Instead, Kuroko picks the safest reason why, "We're in school."

The unbelievably hopeful look Aomine has when he says, "Will you stay the night then?" startles Kuroko and almost shakes his resolve. _Almost. _Instead, he looks away and Aomine would have almost missed the small shake of his head.

Almost immediately, Aomine pulls further away and crosses his arms, giving the impression of a stubborn child, barely managing to hold in a tantrum he knows he'll be scolded for. "Why'd you have to start it then?"

"It was a mista-" Kuroko starts.

"It _wasn't_ a mistake and we both know it." Aomine glares at the floor, projecting all his irritation and disappointment to it. Fuck that Tetsu probably _knows _about his complicated feelings for him and is just teasing him about it. Or he doesn't know for sure and was just testing him to see if it's real. It wasn't enough that the entire goddamn world knew about how he feels, now _Tetsu _himself knows and, fuck, did he just get dumped before he could even confess?

**:+:**

By the time the girls have dispersed and it was safe for them to go home, Aomine was still sulking. But Kuroko had too much going through his mind to care or even to feel uncomfortable.

_Why was he sulking so bad? It's not like he's never been kissed or anything before. He's probably done even more with Kise-kun. He does everyone else anyway._

On the contrary, Kuroko's composure was making Aomine uncomfortable. It did nothing to help the panic he was going through in his mind.

_Are we still best friends or what? Oh god, he probably doesn't want be my shadow anymore but he's just too ... too _Tetsu _to say it. Wait. I _could _just be over thinking this. He's acting like it never happened. Should I act like that too?_

So maybe his best friend and light is a little too spoiled, Kuroko sighs when they board the train and Aomine is still sulking. He debates about it through the entire train ride and only actually makes up his mind when they the speaker announces Aomine's stop.

Aomine looks to the floor when he gives his awkward goodbye and walks away without another word. Kuroko rolls his eyes and sighs again (this is turning him into an old man, really), following Aomine out the door.

It's one night. I'll be selfish for one night. I will regret it later, but at least I can believe he's mine for just one night, and hopefully, that will be enough.

"I don't want to hear anything about my size in your spare clothes," Kuroko says in reply to the confusion evident in Aomine's face. "And I'm _not _skipping out on class tomorrow so the alarm will be set bright and early."

Like a miracle, Aomine's mood drastically changes on their walk home._ Forget how Tetsu's probably just doing this out of pity; he's giving me one night and it's better than nothing._

**:+:**

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**A/N**: I know; I barfed out the cliche, didn't I? :( I started off writing that _one scene_ from the photo and it transpired into this. I got stuck halfway and I was close to just giving up and turning this into porn. The problem is, I giggle like a maniac if I even _attempt_ writing smut, and it's so embarrassing to think about that I ended up ending it like that instead. HAHA!

(If I _had_ written the porn, this would have been dedicated to BlackMaya who suggested the idea of actual PWP.)


	2. Air-Superiority Blue

**Published**: September 11, 2012 (as the first chapter of this story on FFN)  
**  
Rating: **K / Gen  
**Genre**: Angst/Friendship  
**Summary**: High up in the canopy of the world and in his throne, he found that he was alone, because without him noticing, his shadow had broken from him and disappeared without a word.

**Disclaimer:** Hastily written in the middle of a boring Maths class. Someone give a hug to Black Maya for putting up with me again and dealing with my bad tenses (and now, even my pronouns OTL). Crazy bird references ahead, too. And lots of used-up rambling.

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**Air-Superiority Blue**

_This colour is used as camouflage by being painted on the bottom sides of reconnaissance aircraft to make them less visible from the ground._

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o2.

Once upon a time there was a bird who loved to soar the sky. He flew so freely, as if he'd been chained all his life, and each flight was his first taste of freedom. He flew so beautifully that the other birds couldn't do anything but stare from the ground, too intimidated by his grace and prowess to even think of taking flight with him.

He flew because he loved the wind through his feathers, loved the ethereal feeling that came with floating high above the world, in the domain of the clouds, far from the reaches and protected by the sky's purity from the cruel things of the world.

But nothing is constant, and as time passed, without noticing, he fell into a perpetual boredom. The bird found that the beautiful horizon was no longer enough for him - the joys of flying, spreading his wings and breaking free into the wide open sky, joining the winds in their dance and music - was no longer enough. He became listless, and frustrated at the lethargy he found in flying.

So he flew higher and higher, to escape the hampering monotony he'd fallen into, until he flew to close the sun that those on the ground who tried to look at him were blinded by the white glow that enveloped him, as if the gods themselves were moved by how he streamed through the air and blessed him with a crowning halo of light that only they could see his beautiful dance.

There in the canopy of the world, he joins others of his status, larger birds and smaller birds but all his equals in the sport. They could not beat him in his free flight, but they too possessed skills that were unique to them.

Their leader, Phoenix Akashi, had fiery wings and eyes that could see farthest. Midorima could glide the farthest, and Murasakibara had the widest wing span (and could eat anything, too). And there was Kise, a yellow parakeet who could make an almost perfect copy of all of their skills.

They were a strange sight in the world. Birds of different kinds don't usually fly together, but they managed to do it and looked beautiful in their frolic.

But up high on his throne, the bird found that he was alone. His companions were not as much friends as they were birds to fly with. They bickered, competed, and flew with each other during the day, but the game stopped being a game, and though for a while, he believed it would be enough; the facade did not last, and before he knew it, he was falling farther the insipid despondency he so wished to escape.

Because there, he found that his shadow, his one friend through thick and thin, had disappeared without a word, and the saddest thing of all was that it took him long to notice it. His shadow was his partner. They shared a million and one memories together, and just as he reached the peak of his prime, his shadow disappeared, and he does not notice the departure until it was too late and his shadow was long gone.

The despair he felt was overwhelming because with it came the staggering realization that flying had no _meaning_ anymore. He could not even just fly and leave his sorrow behind because the problem was in the flying. It lost its appeal and only condemned him to a nostalgia filled with the fun he shared with his shadow.

The phoenix Akashi told him there are an infinite number of others, who would claw and bite to be his partner and friend, but he was adamant about finding _his_ shadow - he insisted that only _his_ shadow would suffice. So he went on with his life alone, searching for his partner, and being haunted by questions like _Why_ and _When_ and even, _How could you, Tetsu?_

It was only when he met his adversary in the form of a red cardinal - a darker kind of red, unlike the Phoenix Akashi's bright red-orange - did he meet his shadow again, but not as a friend or a partner like the bird so dreamed, but instead, he met him as a foe who wanted to take his crown.

A wave of emotions - hurt, betrayal, and yet so much desire and love as well - washed over him at the sight of his best friend with another. He felt so much animosity against the red beast for thinking _he_ could live up to his legacy - that _he_ was good enough for his friend, when he wasn't.

With his heart in turmoil and his very being filled with conflicting emotions, their fight was swift. He rushed into the fight and pummeled the red bird, until his shadow became a player on the court and he could no longer get his head in the game. Confused and bothered, he lost graciously to the red bird, and to his parting _'I love you, Tetsu!' _

His shadow could only say, _"I'm sorry. This is for your own good, Daiki_."

**:+:**

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**A/N**: Yes, this will be a series of fics with titles based on Wikipedia's Category:Shades of blue. The content will vary from angst to fluff depending on the shade. This fic, idk where it belongs. It was a spur of the moment thing. Confused me even. This got me writing _House of Cards._

Edit: My consistency in formatting is shit. Sorry about that.


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